More Adoptions From Foster Care Than Internationally? Always

The Denver Post reports that "most kids adopted by U.S. families now come from the child-welfare system" as if that's something recent:

Images of children from distant countries, from Bulgaria to China to Russia, have been the public face of adoption in America.

But that picture is overdue for an update.

Most kids adopted by U.S. families now come from the child-welfare system: about 52,340 in 2010, up from 15,000 in 1988.

Indeed. But this isn't anything new. There have always been more foster care adoptions than international adoptions! When those 52,340 kids were adopted from the child-welfare system in 2010, there were only 11,058 kids adopted internationally. The article notes that since 1997, "about 750,000 children have been adopted from foster care in the U.S." In that same time period, less than a third of that number were adopted internationally.

So there's no news here. Yes, more kids are adopted from foster care than internationally. Yes, it's always been that way.